This chapter makes use of the first effort to construct
cross-country comparable reference budgets in Europe to show what the
large cross-national differences in living standards imply in practice
for the adequacy of incomes at the level of the at-risk-of-poverty
threshold. The budgets show that, in the poorest EU Member States, even
adequate food and housing are barely affordable at the level of the
threshold, whereas a decent living standard is much more in reach for
those living on the threshold in the richer EU Member States. The
reference budgets also suggest that the poverty risk of some groups (for
instance, children) is underestimated relative to that of other age
groups, while the poverty risk of homeowners is probably relatively
overestimated.